Inside the m2m Collection
On Sunday 16 August, GAG members were invited into the Camperdown home of fellow members Glenn McKeown and Mark Magill for an exclusive visit to their ever-growing http://m2m.gallery collection.
It was a welcome return to a collection that has continued to evolve since GAG’s previous visit, with new acquisitions joining an already extensive gathering of contemporary Australian and international art.
The m2m Collection explores masculinity, often through representations of the male form, and brings together works by established and emerging artists from Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the Americas.
Rather than being assembled around a formal curatorial programme, the collection has developed organically. Works have been acquired because they engage, challenge or simply continue to reward looking — resulting in a collection that is both highly personal and wonderfully eclectic.
Across the apartment, works by Adam Cullen, Andrew Nicholls, Billy Bain, Andy Warhol, Todd Fuller, Brett Whiteley, David Charles Collins, David McDiarmid, Euan Macleod, Gareth Ernst, Jeff Koons, James Gleeson, Jeffrey Smart, John Coburn, Liam Noonan, Cherry Hood and Jody Graham, among many others, sit alongside one another in sometimes unexpected conversations.
But perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of the afternoon was hearing the stories behind the works.
As members moved through the collection, Glenn and Mark spoke about individual artists and acquisitions, how particular pieces had entered the collection, and the relationships that have developed between works over time. What might have begun as a question about one painting or sculpture frequently became a much broader conversation — about artists, collecting, the male form and the experience of living with art.
The domestic setting made those conversations particularly engaging. Without the distance of a gallery or museum, works could be encountered as they are every day: hanging above furniture, occupying corners, sharing walls with other pieces and becoming part of the life of the home.
With glasses in hand, members wandered, looked, talked and inevitably found themselves drawn to different works. It was exactly the sort of afternoon that demonstrates how rewarding a private collection can be when it is opened and shared.
A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon of art, wine and very good conversation.
